It is fashionable to defend the news media and insist that it has every right to freedom of expression and the government has no business to censor it. Nothing certainly can be more important than the right to speak out or air one’s views in public or in print. But surely a right cannot be misused?
News Broadcasters Association (NBA), a conglomeration of the major broadcasters of the country, has risen in arms against the government’s move to impose censorship on the websites disseminating news and information. The NBA has also written to the government seeking the exclusion of news websites from the ambit of the rules of the Information Technology (Amendment) Bill passed by Parliament in December 2008. The Bill provides for imprisonment for those indulging in cyber-terrorism and for publishing or transmitting obscene material in electronic form.
The Indian Express (July 23) quoted NBA’s secretary general Annie Joseph as saying: “The draft rules amount to eaves-dropping, taping and interception of the electronic communications, including the blocking of information or censorship of websites that disseminate news and information, which amounts to the violation of fundamental rights of free speech.” Oh, really? The situation has come to such a pass that hardly anybody believes what one reads on the websites. And the time inevitably will come when nobody would believe any TV channel’s presentation of “news” either.
In a stinging article in The Hindu (June 7), Sevanti Ninan attacked the government saying, in effect, that no website can be blocked without being heard. Fair enough. But if some damaging information has already been leaked out, who is to be called to order? The fact is, blocking of websites has been very rare, hardly three or four cases in the last five years. It is not that a government would be so foolish as to go in for a large-scale censoring. It hasn’t indulged in that game so far. But the electronic media-forget web pages or websites-can be called to order on other counts. Take the simple case of swine flu. What is India’s population? About 1.2 billion. How many deaths due to swine flu have been reported so far? About twenty-six by mid-August. There have been 26 deaths as a result of swine fever in a nation with a population of 1.2 billion. Is that frightening? But one has to watch TV channels to realise how fear can be spread and people frightened. One gets the impression that not 26, but 2.6 million have been affected. Can’t some one pull up our TV channels?
According to The Indian Express, in the Americas, 98,242 cases had been registered as of July 31, with 1,008 deaths; in Europe 26,089 cases had been registered with 41 deaths. There is no sense of fright in the European media according to informed sources. But in India, it is as if the plague is spreading with a vengeance. The trouble is that electronic channels are fighting for business and “breaking news” has become a way to capture public attention and thereafter advertisements. There is no one to put the channels in their place.
GN Ray, chairman of the Press Council of India, has been reported as saying: “It is high time that the central government set up a media commission to study the problems of the electronic media.” The government must either establish a separate body to look into the matter pertaining to electronic media or it must enlarge the scope of the Press Council. More, the Press Council’s directives must be made binding on the parties. It must be given more regulatory powers and powers to punish offenders. Presently, the Press Council has no teeth and few newspaper ever publish its findings, in part because the brotherhood of newspapers does not permit condemnation of one paper to be published in another paper. But it is worth remembering what chairman Ray said at a meeting organised by the Indian Journalists’ Union. Said Mr Ray: “There has been a paradigm shift in media functioning in India. In the fast-changing media scenario, when ethics of journalism have taken a back seat, journalists need to be more scientific, authentic, truthful, positive and rational.”
Incidentally, according to The Telegraph (August 13), Indian channels have gone off the air in Pakistan, following a government directive asking cable operators to shut networks to counter “cultural invasion” and “anti-Pakistan propaganda”. In Pakistan, presently no operator will be allowed to show Star Plus, Sony TV, SAB TV, 9X and Star Gold. Meanwhile, remember what a Chinese ‘strategist’ is supposed to have said about India, that efforts should be made to break it up into twenty to thirty independent states with the help of “friendly countries” like Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan! The poor ‘strategist’ obviously does not know as it is, Pakistan itself has been broken up! Apparently, the article written by the so-called Chinese strategist was available on the internet. Many newspapers took the matter seriously. If India can be broken up into thirty independent states by, of all countries, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh, then anything is possible in the world. Who knows, ‘nations’ like Singapore, Malaysia, Cambodia and Vietnam may break up China and other nations like Cuba, Honduras, Venezuela, Panama and Costa Rica can break up the United States! Should anyone have taken the story seriously?
The trouble is nobody trusts China and the belief is that the story was government-sponsored. Even the Mumbai-based newspaper DNA (August 13) ran a story that carried the headline: “Balkanising India may not be China’s official views but has its tacit backing”. There must be some in the government who are off their minds! The Hindu (August 17) carried a long article by one Ananth Krishnan (obviously a China expert, judging from his writing), which exposed the so-called Chinese strategist, who, apparently, is a nobody. But the trouble is that the internet and blogs can be misused by anybody and it is frightening to think that in China, there are more than 338 million internet-users and more than 100 million blogs and websites. In the first place, how can any government, howsoever strong, keep a watch on these blogs? Wrote Shri Ananth Krishnan: “Views and opinions from mainstream Chinese newspapers and think-tanks must indeed be taken seriously in India. But, at the same time, a more nuanced understanding of China’s information landscape is needed to avoid shrill hyper-reactions to anonymous bloggers and irrelevant fringe groups.”
We live in a changed world. It would be hard to express one’s views in a newspaper but blogging is free for all-and that is the tragedy of contemporary society. In the name of freedom of expression, freedom is misused and technology gets a bad name. But that is the price, one is afraid, one has to pay for keeping up with modernity.
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